Rosa. ROSACE^E. 18 7 



23. ROSA, Tourn. ROSE. 



Calyx-tube pitcher-shaped or globose, contracted at the throat : limb 5-parted, 

 without bractlets. Petals 5, spreading. Stamens many, on the thickened margin 

 of the silky disk, which nearly closes the mouth of the calyx. Ovaries several, 

 hairy, free and distinct : styles ventral, exserted : stigmas thickened : ovules soli- 

 tary, pendulous. Akenes bony, included in the enlarged fleshy red calyx-tube. 

 Radicle superior. Shrubs, usually prickly ; leaves pinnate, with adnate stipules 

 and mostly serrate leaflets ; flowers corymbose or solitary, showy. 



A strongly marked genus, diffused through the temperate and subalpine regions of the whole 

 northern hemisphere, oat the species most abundant in the Old World. " It comprises a consid- 

 erable number of true species ; but several of them are of very ancient and universal cultivation, 

 and having been multiplied and hybridized with all the skill of modern horticulture, their more 

 or less marked varieties and races are now reckoned by thousands. Even in the wild state en- 

 deavors have been made to characterize so large a number of proposed species that the confusion 

 amongst them " is very great. Upwards of 250 species have been enumerated, reduced by modern 

 authors to about 30, and even when thus limited " specimens will occasionally be found that the 

 most experienced botanist will be at a loss to determine " (Benthnm). The North American species 

 number about 10, of which perhaps but two are found in California. Some cultivated varieties 

 are occasionally found near the older settlements, escaped from gardens, and often incapable of 

 determination. 



1. R. Californica, Cham. & Schlecht. Erect, diffusely branched, 2 to 8 feet 

 high, sparingly armed with rather stout usually recurved prickles : foliage and 

 inflorescence more or less tomentose : leaflets 2 or 3 pairs, ovate to oblong, acute or 

 obtuse, a half to an inch long : corymbs 1 - 6-flowered ; pedicels often pubescent, 

 occasionally glandular : calyx-tube globose or ovoid, mostly glabrous ; the lobes 

 tomentose, often glandular, foliaceously tipped : petals 6 to 9 lines long, rarely 

 larger : fruit globose, 4 or 5 lines in diameter, abruptly and narrowly constricted 

 below the calyx-lobes, which are spreading or erect. Linnaea, ii. 35. 



Var. ultramontana, Watson. Tomentose, but not glandular : calyx-tube and 

 pedicels glabrous : prickles straight and slender. R. blanda, Watson, Bot. King 

 Exp. 91, and others. 



Common on stream-banks, from San Diego northward to Oregon ; the variety on the eastern 

 side of the Sierra Nevada, ranging to the Rocky Mountains. 



2. R. pisocarpa, Gray. Closely resembling R. Californica, from which it is 

 distinguished by its smaller globose fruit (about 3 lines in diameter), not constricted 

 below the closely reflexed calyx-lobes. Proc. Am. Acad. viii. 382. 



Collected by Hall in Oregon, and probably extending into California. The characters by 

 which flowering specimens of the two species can be distinguished are not yet apparent. 



3. R. gymnocarpa, Nutt. Slender, 1 to 4 feet high, armed with often numer- 

 ous straight very slender prickles, or sometimes unarmed, glabrous : leaflets 2 to 4 

 pairs, a half to an inch long or often much less, the serratures as well as the petioles 

 and stipules more or less glandular : flowers solitary, rarely 2 or 3, small, rarely an 

 inch in diameter: calyx-lobes scarcely appendaged, at length deciduous : fruit small, 

 ovate or pear-shaped, 3 to 5 lines long, very narrowly constricted at the summit : 

 seeds few, smooth. Torr. & Gray, Fl. i. 461 ; Torrey, Bot. Mex. Bound, t. 21. 



Var. pubescens, Watson. Leaves finely pubescent. 



On dry hills in the Coast Ranges from San Diego northward, and to the British boundary ; the 

 variety in the Sierra Nevada, at Clark's (A. Gray), and on Silver Mountain, at 9,000 feet alti- 

 tude, Brewer. 



R. BLANDA, Ait. (?) Another species is common in Oregon extending eastward to the Rocky 

 Mountains, resembling the eastern R. blanda, but probably not identical with it. It may be 

 found in Northern California, and can be distinguished from the preceding species by its larger 

 flowers and fruit, the latter half an inch or more in diameter and not at all constricted at the 

 summit. It is more glabrous than R. Californica, and the prickles are stout, either straight or 

 recurved. 



